Wade Way Cottage is a Grade II listed building just south of the Catchpond in Chidham Lane.
It bears a date plaque for 1732 and for some time was known as Crooked Chimney under which its Grade II listing was made in 1986.
Did you know?
The house’s other name is due to the odd zig-zag shape of the chimney that can be seen on the side wall of the house. It has only reverted back to Wade Way Cottage in recent years.
The cottage’s Historic England listing describes it as ’18th Century of two storeys faced with knapped flints with red brick dressings, quoins and string course. Thatched roof casement windows and a small portion of one storey at north end.’
Did You Know?
Flint knapping goes back to prehistoric times and is how our ancestors made flint arrows and spears to hunt with. Knapping is the shaping of flint or other conchoidal fracturing stones like chert or obsidian. It is highly skilled and the process involves steadily flaking off pieces of the stone, called lithic reduction, in order to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to make flat-faced stones for buildings or facing walls as attractive decoration.
Prior to the construction of the tide bank beside the catchpond, the area between Wade Way Cottage and Steels Lane to the North East was a marshy inlet from the Bosham Creek, hence the name ‘Wade Way’. There is still a marshy and muddy area North of Harbour Way today.
Did you know?
After Roman times (43 to 410 AD), perhaps due to climate deterioration and increased storms, marine influence began to extend up river valleys and to deplete natural sea barriers, allowing the sea to flood up the lower reaches of rivers and estuaries. This activity turned much of the former freshwater marsh, meadow and fen into tidal salt marsh, to produce the valued environment we see all around Chichester Harbour today.
Wade Way Cottage is only one of many listed buildings on the Chidham peninsula.
